TAU IN CEREBROSPINAL FLUIDS - ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SANDWICH ELISA WITH ANTIBODY SPECIFIC TO THE REPEAT SEQUENCE IN TAU

Clinical diagnosis for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is provided by the cri teria of DSMIV and clinical progress in addition to imaging analysis w ith MRI after negative screening. The final exclusive diagnosis is con firmed by the neuropathological findings of neuro-fibrillary tangles a nd senile plaques in autopsy brains. We developed a new ELISA system t o measure the amount of tau in cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) using phosph orylation-independent and sequence-specific antibodies. The present EL ISA was sensitive enough to detect tau in CSF of normal subjects. The amount of tau was significantly elevated in CSF of AD subjects compare d with those of normal subjects and subjects with dementia of cerebrov ascular disease, suggesting that tau in CSF reflects the massive and c ontinuous neuronal cell death in the AD brain. In conclusion, we estab lished an ELISA system which enabled us to detect tau in CSF and demon strated that tau was significantly and specifically elevated in CSF of AD subjects. This assay system can provide us with a potent diagnosti c tool for clinical AD.